


The Will to Survive

by Fritillary



Category: Myst Series
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Sibling Bonding, Spoilers for Myst IV: Revelation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 16:26:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18695116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fritillary/pseuds/Fritillary
Summary: “…and here,” Yeesha pointed to the left arch, and then tapped the sketch beside her, “I want this.”





	The Will to Survive

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: #120 - Window (tamingthemuse ) and Themed:Fantasy, #4 - dragon (mission_insane )  
>  _Italics_ represent an extract from Achenar's journal, although as Achenar writes like he speaks, it could just as easily be a remembered monologue. Line breaks symbolise a time-skip.

Frowning carefully, without taking her eyes from the page, Yeesha dipped the quill pen back into he ink and touched it to the blank paper. His journal lay open beside her and Achenar’s gruff voice echoed in her head. Even after all these years she could still hear the delight and adrenaline infusing his words as he described the battle he had fought against the natural inhabitants of his prison. Holding the page steady, tongue absently poking out the corner of her mouth in concentration, she began to draw.

\-----------

_"I’d cut strips from my shirt, you see, to bind my hands. Made the spear easier to hold. It took me ages to make that spear; bits of flint spliced into the wooden shaft and bound with grasses. I’d remembered the basic principle from Emmit as a child, the way they fished with hand-made harpoons around the Rocks. (Surprised me really; what I’d picked up about living rough after all those years of following Father through the Ages he wrote: weaving from Narayan, fishing from Stoneship, ink-mixing from Channelwood. Of course, Father knew how to make inks - the specials inks of the D’ni - but he never showed either Sirrus or me. Afraid of what we’d do, of course, if we got our hands on that power.)"_

_"Where’d I got to? Oh yeah, weapons. I’d brought a small dagger with me when I’d come to Haven in the first place, hoping to find something to hunt (and boy, were there things to hunt!) but I’d known as soon as I’d seen that monster that the short blade simply wasn’t gonna cut it (literally) when it came to fighting that beast."_

_"Kill it? ‘Course I did. I had to, little sister, you see? It was on my patch. Wasn’t room for both of us in this Age, not if I wanted to live however I pleased; on the beach and whatnot. Besides, it felt like an achievement at first: getting the better of something that much bigger (and it wasn’t half as dumb as it appeared either; sussed out a lot of my traps before I hit on one that lured it into the shallows where I could get it)."_

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“…and here,” Yeesha pointed to the left arch, and then tapped the sketch beside her, “I want this.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking up, Yeesha paused under the furthest arch of the newly renovated temple, and smiled. The stone opening was brilliantly illuminated by the afternoon sunlight streaming through the enormous stained glass window that filled most of the wall. The light cast a perfect mirror image in blazing colours on the bare stone floor, while the characters frozen in each panel appeared to breath with an inner warmth, as if captured alive in the window pane.

Clad in a worn linen shirt, sleeves torn free, a bearded man held his flint-headed spear aloft, while above him the monster bared its fang-filled jaws and the two opponents faced one another as equals; locked forever in their struggle to survive.


End file.
